A wine thief is a glass or food-grade plastic pipette used in the process of wine making. It may be anywhere from 12 to 24 inches (30 to 60 centimetres) in length and may have a bend near one end. The wine thief is used to remove a small amount of wine from a cask, carboy, or other fermentation device for testing.
Home winemakers may also use a wine thief in connection with a length of tubing to siphon wine from one container to the other (a process called racking) or to transfer the wine to bottles.
Read more about this topic: Wine Stopper
Famous quotes containing the words wine and/or thief:
“Age appears to be best in four things—old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not being a thief any more. Thieving is God’s message to him. Let him try and be a good thief.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)